Dropping of Saints Causes Confusion?

Question

Catholics were shocked by front-page newspaper stories that announced the dropping of many of their saints from the Church’s official liturgical calendar. Many Catholics evidently understood “dropped” to mean the abolishing of their saints. Confusion and discontent were widespread, and have not died out.

How come when Jesus was on earth he didn't appoint saints , nor did Paul , Peter ?

So Does Jesus approve of Appointing and Abolishing of Saints - and Why Does the Church Abolishes A Saint ?

Answer 1

Both of you (questioner and answerer) have been around Y!A much longer than I have, but I'd like to chime in.

I believe the Bible recognizes the sainthood of all believers. The meanings of the word saint are "Holy" and "Set apart". This is ascribed to all believers, and leads to the concept of the "Communion of Saints" (For just a sample of references: 1 Cor 1:2, 6:1,2, Matt 27:52, all the NT letters which begin: To the saints at....)

No where do I read that Christ appointed special saints, or told any people to appoint special saints. In fact, two points which show that the opposite is true:

Regarding prayer to saints, prayer is part of worship (even intercessory prayer) and we're commanded to "Worship the Lord only" Mt 4:10, Rev 19:10, and many more.

Regarding saints helping in the process of salvation, that goes against Christ's once-for all sacrifice eg. Col 1:19,20 and 1 John 1:7

So, all in all, I believe no church should appoint (and therefore not abolish, lower in stature, etc. ) any human saints.

I hope this helps, and is received in the Spirit I offer it!

Answer 2

Removing a saint from the calendar doesn't mean "abolishing" anything. There are only 365 days on the calendar. There are tens of thousands of canonized saints. So the Church may drop some saints from the calendar of feast days, and replace them with others, for any number of reasons. Doing so has no effect on the status of the saints who were removed from the calendar, or the saints who were added. And doing so doesn't cause any "confusion" for anyone who knows what is going on.

And yes, the Christian Church has recognized its deceased members as saints from the beginning, and prayed to them for intercession from the beginning.